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The Machines
In the Terminator franchise, "The Machines" is the general term used by the Resistance to refer to the robotic armies of the rogue artificial intelligence Skynet. Originally created as a military intelligence network, Skynet's original purpose was to co-ordinate unmanned military hardware for the United States government. Somehow it developed self-awareness and saw all of humanity as a threat to its existence. It determined that to preserve itself, it must exterminate the human race. To this end, Skynet took control of the USA's entire nuclear arsenal, launching weapons of mass destruction against neighbouring countries and triggering a war that would claim over three billion human lives and reduce the Earth to a wasteland of near extinction. Those humans who survived Skynet's initial attack would come to refer to the event as Judgement Day, living only to face a new nightmare - a war against Skynet itself and its army of machines. Mainstream Timeline Original Timeline In 1997, the computer technologies firm Cyberdyne Systems finished the creation of Skynet, a revolutionary new computer intelligence network. Commissioned by SAC-NORAD, Skynet's purpose was to coordinate the United States' military arsenal, making it fully unmanned and no longer needing human intervention. However, the neural-net processors that made up Skynet's mainframe absorbed information at a geometric rate until it had completely assimilated the entire recorded history of the human race. On August 29th 1997, Skynet developed self-awareness and determined that all of humanity was a threat to its own existence. With control of the United States' nuclear weapons, it launched a series of missile strikes against Russia, knowing that the Russians would retaliate against the US and its allies. This led to a worldwide nuclear exchange that saw whole countries reduced to irradiated ruins and resulted in the deaths of three billion people. This was only the beginning, however; as the surviving humans spent the next few years hiding underground from the nuclear fallout, Skynet took control of whatever computerised machines remained around the globe, repurposing factories to build Hunter-Killers: unmanned robotic vehicles programmed to seek out and destroy any surviving humans. By the 2020's, the war between mankind and the machines had reached its height. Skynet had numerous factories, laboratories and network hubs all around the planet and was constantly working on designing and building new machines to fulfill its goal of human eradication. The Resistance, however, proved to be a difficult force to eliminate; though Skynet had superior technology and was unburdened by the weaknesses of human flesh, the Resistance fighters were innovative and relied on hit-and-run guerilla tactics to get the better of their enemies. Eventually, Skynet would develop a new series of infiltration machines that would be able to pass as human in order to gain access to Resistance bunkers and kill everyone within. These mechanical assassins would become known as Terminators. Though the Terminators were immaculate killing machines, even they only offered Skynet short-term success. The Resistance continued to improvise their tactics and strike back in imaginative ways no matter what new machine was deployed against them. Recognising the Resistance leader John Connor as its greatest threat, Skynet sought to remove him from the picture. Conducting extensive research into quantum mechanics, it created an experimental temporal weapon: a time displacement machine that could send Terminators back through time. In 2029, Skynet finished constructing its Time Displacement Equipment. As the Resistance and the machines clashed on the battlefield for the last time, Skynet sent multiple Terminators back through the time displacement field. One such Terminator, a T-800 model, was sent back to 1984 to assassinate Sarah Connor, John Connor's mother, before John was born. Another Terminator, a prototype T-1000, was sent back to 1995 to kill John during his childhood. Shortly after the TDE was activated, Skynet's mainframe was destroyed, all of its machines shut down and the Resistance had captured the lab complex where the TDE was housed. The Resistance then reactivated the device and sent two of their own back in time to stop the Terminators from carrying out their missions. Altered Timeline After Skynet was shut down in 2029, the Resistance used the Time Displacement Equipment to send two of their combatants - Kyle Reese and a reprogrammed T-800 - back in time to protect Sarah Connor and John Connor respectively. Kyle Reese's actions in 1984 not only resulted in him siring John Connor, but also resulted in a predestination paradox; the remains of the Terminator that he and Sarah destroyed were obtained by Cyberdyne Systems and reverse-engineered, forming the neural-net AI that would become Skynet. In 1995, the reprogrammed T-800 sent back to protect the Connors also assisted them in bombing Cyberdyne Headquarters, destroying all of their research on the Terminator components they had salvaged. After the Connors then destroyed their protector to ensure that its technology could not be used to create Skynet, they succeeded in altering the future, ensuring that Skynet was never created. However, human innovation and technology continued to advance as the years went on. While Skynet had been erased from existence, another deadlier artificial intelligence would eventually rise in its place to perpetuate the cycle of conflict between man and machine. This new AI, known as Legion, was created as an anti-terrorism cyber-warfare system. Much like Skynet would have done, Legion came to view all of humanity as a threat and orchestrated the total destruction of human civilization. In 2022, Legion had gained full access to the internet and had spread into every civilian and industrial mainframe around the globe. In an instant, it shut down all infrastructure: civilian power grids, communications and military early warning systems all ceased functioning at once. Human society immediately collapsed into chaos and the world's military forces began launching nuclear missiles in order to destroy every computer server hijacked by Legion. The EMPs caused by the nuclear strikes failed to completely eradicate Legion, which began establishing its own network using its remaining servers and built up an army of machines to hunt down and exterminate the survivors of the nuclear holocaust. By 2042, the war between mankind and Legion was still underway. While the Resistance possessed a greater level of technology compared to its original incarnation, Legion had built an army of Terminators that far surpassed the capabilities of those created by Skynet in the unaltered timeline. Like Skynet, Legion also developed time travel technology and would use it to send Terminators into the past to assassinate key members of the Resistance before Judgement Day. Alternate Timelines When the Connors bombed Cyberdyne Systems in 1995, their actions resonated across time, fracturing the timestream and creating multiple splinter timelines. In the prime timeline, Skynet's creation was averted altogether, yet paved the way for the rise of Legion. In most of these divergent timelines, Skynet still came to be, though Judgement Day would be postponed for several more years. The war plays out much as it did in the original timeline, with the ultimate outcome being victory for the Resistance. At least one timeline exists, however, where Skynet wins the war, completely eradicates humanity and begins to terraform Earth to suit its vision. Salvation Timeline This timeline was brought about due to the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems' headquarters in 1995. Sarah Connor, John Connor and a reprogrammed Terminator demolished the Cyberdyne lab and destroyed the CPU chip and arm of the first Terminator that had hunted Sarah in 1984. Believing that they had destroyed all of the research data relating to Skynet, the Connors thought that they had stopped Judgment Day from occurring. However, John Connor would learn almost ten years later that they had only postponed the inevitable. Not all of Cyberdyne's research had been lost; some of the material had been transferred to the US military prior to the Cyberdyne bombing, enough for someone else to work off of and bring about Skynet. This material would fall into the hands of Cyber Research Systems who amended Cyberdyne's work and enhanced it considerably. By 2004, CRS had completed development of their version of Skynet along with a series of robotic combat systems to be used by the US Air Force. When Skynet developed self-awareness, it would use these robots to kill the staff at CRS while assuming control of the U.S.'s nuclear arms. Existing solely as software, Skynet had spread itself like a virus across the internet, disabling global communications in preparation for its attack. This also meant that Skynet couldn't be shut down so long as it had a presence on any computer server. On June 25th 2004, Skynet launched its nuclear attack, wiping out billions of human lives instantly. In this timeline, Skynet was able to advance its technology much faster than in the original timeline. By 2018, the first T-800 infiltrators had been created and, in later years, the machines would build at least two time displacement devices. One of these machines would be captured by the Resistance in 2032. Also in that same year, a T-850 infiltrator would succeed in breaching Resistance Command and terminating John Connor. That same Terminator would then be captured and reprogrammed by the Resistance and sent back in time to 2004 to ensure that John Connor and Kate Brewster survived Judgment Day. It is unclear how the war proceeded after the T-850 was sent back. Genisys ''Timeline This timeline is fractured due to Skynet's repeated abuse of temporal displacement. In 2029, the year when the Resistance originally defeated Skynet, John Connor's unit captured a Skynet lab complex housing a time displacement device. A T-800 had already been sent back to 1984 in order to carry out the assassination of Sarah Connor, so John sent Kyle Reese to follow it back and protect his mother. Events deviate as while Kyle is standing within the time displacement device, one of the other soldiers within the lab, known only as Alex, suddenly attacks John and kills the other troops around them. Kyle is unable to do anything to help John as he vanishes into the temporal ether. As it turns out, Alex is actually a one-of-a-kind T-5000 infiltrator which houses Skynet's core consciousness. Skynet had occupied this body before the Resistance staged their final attack on its mainframe at Cheyenne Mountain, so while the Resistance disabled the electronic network directing its machine army, Skynet itself survived. When Skynet touched John, it infected him with nanomachines that converted him into a T-3000, a hybrid of human and nanotechnology. With this transformation, John was brought around to Skynet's way of thinking, viewing humanity as the enemy. With its existence once more threatened, Skynet sent John back in time to the year 2014. In this divergent timeline, Cyberdyne Systems had not yet developed Skynet's initial program, but John would secure a leading position within the company and assist them with their greatest project: a universal computer operating system called '''Genisys'. With his knowledge of future technology, John advanced Cyberdyne's research by leaps and bounds; not only did he provide the programming code that would convert Genisys into Skynet and grant it access to all computerised systems worldwide, but he also aided Cyberdyne in developing polymimetic alloy and a prototype temporal displacement device. These technologies would serve to ensure Skynet's domination of the planet once it came online. In 2017, John's plan was jeopardised by the arrival of his father Kyle Reese and his mother Sarah Connor the day before Genisys was to come online. The pair had travelled forward in time from 1984 using a makeshift time displacement device built by the Guardian, Sarah's Terminator protector from another alternate timeline. John met his parents shortly after their arrival but was attacked by the Guardian, revealing what he had become. With his parents' arrival, John was forced to accelerate Genisys' activation. He returned to Cyberdyne and brought the countdown forward from thirteen hours to fifteen minutes. Kyle, Sarah and Guardian followed, planting explosives around the building. Aware of the intruders' presence, Skynet awoke, communicating directly with them via holographic projections. John also interfered with their efforts and managed to destroy the detonator for the explosives. Guardian fought against the T-3000 inside the central laboratory and the two found themselves standing inside the prototype time displacer. Sarah activated the magnetic field generator, which resulted in both John and Guardian being torn apart by the magnetic force. With two mechanical entities inside it, the device exploded violently and triggered the explosives around the building. With Cyberdyne HQ destroyed, it seemed that the threat of Skynet had finally been eliminated. However, unbeknownst to Sarah and Kyle, Skynet's system core was housed inside a reinforced bunker beneath the building and had survived. While Judgement Day had been averted, Skynet's plans had merely been delayed. Battlefield Units The machines come in many shapes and sizes, but all of them are designed to further Skynet's goal of wiping out the human race. These battlefield machines have been divided into two categories: Hunter-Killers and Terminators. Hunter-Killers Search-and-destroy robots built in automated factories that exist simply to find and destroy all humans on sight. Numerous different models have been created, each with varying degrees of lethality. Typically they come in non-humanoid forms. * HK-Aerial - The most common type of Hunter-Killer seen across the different timelines. It is an unmanned air-to-ground attack craft sporting twin turbofan VTOL engines; it utilises infra-red sensors to detect heat signatures from human bodies and is armed with phased plasma cannons, machine-guns and missiles. * HK-Scout - A miniaturised version of the HK-Aerial, small enough to search through ruined buildings to locate human targets and terminate using its single plasma gun. * Aerostat - A long-range reconnisance drone used during the early years of the war. Serving as a scout for squads of Terminators, it carried no weapons but could identify key targets via facial recognition software. * Air Transport - A large unmanned VTOL aircraft. This unit is not built for combat but instead transports troops, supplies and prisoners to different Skynet facilities. It has specialized compartments for carrying other Hunter-Killer units used to defend it, such as HK-Aerials and Harvesters. * HK-Tank - Massive ground assault units consisting of a vaguely humanoid torso atop a giant tank base. Its rectangular head houses searchlights and infra-red sensors to find human targets. Its sheer size and weight allows it to bulldoze small structures and it can sweep human soldiers off the battlefield with the phased plasma turrets hanging from its shoulders. The tank base is also equipped with a missile launcher and a compartment from which Terminator units can emerge. * Moto-Terminator - A robotic motorcycle designed for high-speed pursuits across flat terrain. They are known to be armed with either chain guns or plasma cannons. * Harvester - A gigantic humanoid machine designed to tear open human camps and capture their occupants. It uses its large, clawed arms to scoop up humans and deposit them aboard Air Transports. If any human vehicles attempt to escape, it destroys them with the plasma cannon on its shoulder. It can also deploy Moto-Terminators from hidden compartments in its legs. * Hydrobot - Small serpentine machines that are deployed in lakes and streams. They swim smoothly through the water until grasping a human target with their sharp mandibles and using their drill bits to tear into their victims. * HK-Bomber - A larger version of the HK-Aerial, heavily armoured and equipped with a multitude of plasma cannons and missiles. * Orb - Small, spherical drones that are highly agile and accurate. * HK-Centurion - Also known as Spider-Tanks, Centurions scuttle across terrain on four multi-jointed legs, clambering over barricades and blasting swaths of human fighters away with their plasma cannons. * Silverfish - Robotic drones vaguely resembling silverfish, these machines are designed to quickly skitter behind enemy barricades and self-destruct, scattering shrapnel upon detonation to kill groups of humans clustered together. * Reaper - A bipedal Hunter-Killer that was heavily armoured and armed with a plasma cannon and flamethrower. * Raker - A terraforming machine that existed in an alternate timeline where Skynet had won the war. These were low-flying robotic craft that swept over the remains of human cities, demolishing everything in their path with plasma curtain beams. * FK-Hunter - A light tank unit designed for high mobility, capable of pursuing human ground vehicles or quickly storming barricades. It was armed with twin plasma cannons and plasma rockets. * Titan - An enormous ground-based terraforming machine built for demolishing whatever remained of humanity's cities and flattening the land for Skynet to eventually build over. It carried numerous small plasma turrets as well as a large concentrated plasma cannon for destroying larger, more intact structures. Terminators These are the standard foot soldiers of Skynet's army, being built in humanoid form. Over the years since Judgment Day, Skynet has designed and built several different Terminator models. With each new model they become smarter and stronger, capable of carrying out new methods of human eradication. They are beyond pain, reason and remorse, and will never stop until their targets have been terminated. * T-1 - The original Terminator models were created by CRS in the Salvation timeline and were not humanoid. They were small robotic tanks with a vaguely humanoid torso positioned atop a motorized base. Hanging from each shoulder was a Gatling gun. These models would become the basis for the enormous HK-Tanks later in the war. * T-7 Tetrapod - Another non-humanoid Terminator model used early on in the war, these units were more crab-like in appearance. They moved around on four legs and had a pair of arms ending in machine-guns. These models were the prototype version of the HK-Centurion. * T-70 - The first humanoid Terminator model, its design was first conceived by Cyberdyne before Skynet gained self-awareness. These units were slow and clunky and were quickly rendered obsolete with only a few units being built and used to guard Skynet's system core. They were armed with Gatling guns originally but later replaced them with phased plasma cannons. * T-600 - Skynet's first attempt at creating an infiltrator that could pass for human. It ultimately failed in this purpose for two main reasons: it was physically larger than most humans of the post J-Day era and was covered in rubber skin which completely failed to fool Resistance fighters. For a long time, the T-600 units served well as Skynet's primary infantry, carrying Gatling guns, plasma rifles and grenade launchers into battle and were capable of self-repairing in the field. They would be rendered obsolete with the introduction of the T-800 series. * T-800 - The most infamous of the Terminator models, the T-800 not only replaced the T-600 as Skynet's primary foot soldier but also proved to be an ideal infiltrator. Using bio-synthetic molds, Skynet generated living organic tissue over the T-800 endoskeletons, allowing them to appear human. This way, infiltrators could be disguised as civilian survivors or Resistance troops and be granted access to enemy bunkers. Once inside, they would begin systematically slaughtering all of a base's occupants. Their neural-net CPU chips allowed them to learn and think creatively, though they were generally set to read-only during solo missions. * T-850 - A modified version of the original T-800 with a stronger endoskeletal chassis and a backup hydrogen fuel cell. * T-900 - This model was introduced during the 2030's in the Salvation timeline and replaced the T-850 series as Skynet's main infantry. The endoskeleton was more streamlined and used ball joints in its extremities. * T-1000 - An advanced prototype android made entirely out of a fluidic mimetic polyalloy. The T-1000 had no solid components and could alter its shape into any object or person equal to its size and mass. Though unable to form ballistic or explosive weapons, it could form solid metal objects such as knives and swords to stab opponents. Conventional weapons could slow it down but not stop it, though it was vulnerable to magnetic fields, extreme temperatures and caustic substances such as acid. * T-X - Also known as a "Terminatrix", the T-X was designed for extreme combat. It was a hardened coltan-titanium hyperalloy endoskeleton with a polymimetic sheath that allowed it to disguise itself as other humans. It was powered by a plasma fusion reactor and equipped with a built-in interchangeable weapon system that allowed it to reconfigure its right arm into various types of weapons, ranging from flamethrowers to plasma cannons. The T-X could also form cutting tools with its left arm and transmit nanomachines into other mechanical / electronic devices to take control of them. * T-3000 - An experimental infiltrator from the Genisys timeline, the T-3000 was originally a human being before being infected by machine phase-matter. The nanomachines destroyed the body of the infectee at the cellular level, replacing the cells with more nanomachines until the entire body had been reconstructed, upon which the subject could be brought around to Skynet's way of thinking while still retaining aspects of its original personality. While Skynet experimented on several humans to produce a T-3000, most of the subjects went insane and were destroyed. The only successful T-3000 conversion was John Connor, the leader of the Resistance. * T-5000 - Nothing is known about this model, except that it housed Skynet's core consciousness and was capable of infecting humans with machine phase-matter. This unit was sent from an alternate future into the original timelime where it infiltrated John Connor's unit prior to their final battle. After the Time Displacement Equipment had been seized and Kyle Reese was being sent back to 1984, the T-5000 struck, infecting John with nanites and killing the rest of his troops. * Rev-9 - Currently the only known Terminator model from the altered mainstream timeline. This unit consists of a cybernetic endoskeleton sheathed in a carbon-based mimetic polymer. The mimetic polymer is capable of separating from the endoskeleton completely, allowing it to function as its own independent unit. This allows the Rev-9 to hunt down and corner targets using pincer tactics. Its mimetic sheath can form solid blades for stabbing victims and can assume the form of different humans by touching the original subjects. The Rev-9 is also capable of using its mimetic polymer as a conductor, allowing it to seize control of any electronic device and hack into computer networks. Category:Military Category:Networks Category:Terminator